


Squirrels in the Walls

by Humansunshine



Series: Luke Month 2019 [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Luke Month 2019, Possibly Luke/Alaric if you squint, Soft Luke Garroway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 18:41:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18429869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Humansunshine/pseuds/Humansunshine
Summary: Luke saves some trapped squirrels in the walls of the precinct with Alaric's help.





	Squirrels in the Walls

**Author's Note:**

  * For [justelaura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justelaura/gifts).



> So this incident was referenced in one of the recent episodes of the show but I haven't watched a full episode since 3x13 so I hope this makes sense! For Laura, who prompted 'I wanna know more about Luke saving the squirrels, that sounds like a really soft story.'
> 
> Tw for small animals scratching and biting?

“What the hell is that noise?” Alaric asked, looking up from his computer. 

The precinct wasn’t exactly the quietest place; there was constant conversation, interrogations, the tapping of keyboards, doors opening and closing as uniformed officers came and went. Luke was standing at the whiteboard trying to connect the dots of a batch of armed robberies of nursing homes downtown, and turned away from it to ask his partner what noise he was talking about, but then his wolf ears picked up a noise that wasn’t usually there. 

The scratching noise seemed to be coming from the walls themselves, and Luke shouldered past the stand-alone white board to put his ear to the wall behind it. He closed his eyes and tuned out the background noise of the precinct, and sure enough, heard the panicked shrieks of some small furry creature along with the incessant scratching.

“I think it might be mice?” 

“Nah, it’s deeper than a mouse’s squeak,” Alaric insisted, pressing his own ear to the wall. “I reckon it’s squirrels.” 

“How the hell did squirrels get in the wall?” Now that Alaric had said it, he was pretty sure that the noise was a couple of squirrels, maybe three. 

Alaric shrugged. “We should call pest control.” 

“What? No, they’ll kill them,” Luke answered, “they’re just stuck.”

“They can’t stay in there, they’ll starve to death.” 

Luke rolled up his sleeves. “I didn’t say we were leaving them in there.” 

~~~~~~~~~~

“I’ll replaster the wall,” Luke promised, holding a sledgehammer from one of the riot vans. 

The Captain looked at Luke with disbelief. “They’re just squirrels, Garroway, there’s hundreds of them out in the park.” 

“If we bring out pest control you’ll have to pay them and we’ll have to evacuate the office for a day while they smoke them out, and they’ll leave a hole in the wall anyway.” Luke pointed out. 

“I suppose you’re right,” the Captain allowed, “just make sure you don’t let the damn things loose in the precinct.” 

“I’ll put them in an evidence box as Luke gets them out,” Alaric shrugged.

The Captain threw up his hands. “Then I suppose I don’t have a reason to stop you. For god’s sakes, Garroway, don’t make me regret this.” 

Luke smiled. “You won’t, Sir. Thank you.” 

Everyone in their office turned up to watch Luke bash a hole in the wall a foot below the sound of the squirrels. Luke handed off the sledgehammer to Alaric and moved close enough to peer up into the wall cavity. Sure enough, there was a whole family of squirrels burrowed in the insulation. 

“Get the box, Alaric,” Luke said urgently, carefully reaching up. He caught one of the squirrels round the middle, its heartbeat rabbiting against his palm. As he pulled it out it bit his thumb and Luke hissed, quickly putting it into the box Alaric was holding out. Alaric shut the top of the box, trapping the squirrel inside. 

“You need to do it quickly so they don’t get stressed,” one of the secretaries piped up, and Luke nodded, reaching up for another one. 

“You’re gonna need like ten tetanus shots after this,” a uniformed officer said, and as if on cue, a second squirrel scrabbled against the back of his hand, its tiny claws digging into his skin. 

“Fuck,” Luke whispered, screwing up his nose and taking hold of the second squirrel’s back legs. This one was pissed, and scratched at Luke’s hand desperately, shrieking as Luke gently tossed it into the box. Once again, Alaric closed the top. “There’s only two left,” Luke said, squinting up into the wall cavity once more. 

The third squirrel froze when Luke grabbed it, much to his relief, and went in the box without too much fuss. The fourth, however, was hiding behind a chunk of insulation, and no matter how much Luke tried, he couldn’t reach it without pulling the insulation out. 

“Wait, I have peanuts in my desk!” Alaric remembered, “Lopez, second drawer down.” He nodded towards his desk, not taking his hands off the top of the box he was holding shut. 

“You couldn’t have mentioned that before?!” Luke demanded, and Alaric snorted.

“My bad.”

Luke sighed, and took the peanuts from Lopez. He put two in the palm of his hand and put it as far up into the wall as he could. Sure enough, the last squirrel dropped down into his hand after a moment, and Luke pulled it out of the wall and deposited it with the others in the box. He looked at his hand and winced. They were scratched up pretty bad, bleeding in more places than one.

The assembled cops clapped and Luke shrugged off the attention, rummaging around in his desk with his good hand for his first aid kit. “Get back to work, nothing to see here,” he assured them.

“Hey, tape this shut for now.” Alaric said, inclining his head towards the cellotape. Luke abandoned the first aid kit and poked some holes with his pen in the top of the box before taping it up to make sure that the squirrels couldn’t escape. “Do you think we should put some shredded paper in there?” 

“They won’t be in there for long,” Luke shook his head. “Help me patch up my hand and then we can take them to the park.” 

Alaric sat on Luke’s desk, reaching for the antiseptic wipes. 

“It’s not like I can get rabies.” Luke snorted, glancing around to check that no-one was listening.

“You don’t know that,” Alaric argued, gently cleaning Luke’s hand. “Rabies is a canine disease.”

Luke huffed out a laugh when he saw the small smile on Alaric’s face. “Right. Funny.” 

“I thought so,” Alaric shrugged.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment a Luke-centric prompt below or tweet me @harryshumsbitch


End file.
